> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/reports/data-dictionary.md. Every page is listed at https://admin.backed.giving/help/llms.txt.

> This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

The data dictionary lists every field on your templates, with its tag, its type and the rounds that
use it. Look a field up here before you add it to a report, so you know you have the right one.

Header, free text and image elements capture nothing, so they are not listed. The dictionary
describes how your forms are set up. It never shows an applicant's answers.

## Before you start

You need `Can create and update reports`, `Can generate reports` or `Can access Settings >
Templates`. Without one of them, you don't see `Data dictionary`.

## Find a field

1. Go to `Report > Data dictionary`. The `Fields` tab opens.
2. Type in `Search fields`. The search matches a field's label, its tag, the tag's definition, the
   template's name and a round's name, whatever the case.
3. Narrow the list with the filters: `Template type`, `Template`, `Used by` (a round) and
   `Field type`.
4. Select `Tagged`, `Untagged` or `Not used by any round` to show only those fields. Select it
   again to turn it off.

The count above the list says how many fields match. Each filter you set shows as a chip: select
its `x` to remove it, or `Clear filters` to remove them all.

Each row shows the field's label, its Field Tag or Cell Tag, its field type, whether it's
mandatory, the options of a choice field, its template and template type, its section, the rounds
that use the template and the report categories it appears under. A Table's column has a row of
its own, named `Table › column`.

## See where a field is used

Select a field's label. A panel names its template, page and section, its tag and definition, and
every Funding Round and Assessment Round that uses the template, using your organisation's own
terms if you've renamed them.

Select `Show only this template’s fields` to filter the list to that template.

## Read and write tag definitions

The `Tags` tab lists each Field Tag and Cell Tag once, with its definition, how many fields carry
it and the name of each field and its template. A tag used on two templates is one row naming
both. `Search tags` matches a tag's name, its definition, a field's label or a template's name.

If you have `Can access Settings > Templates`, you can write a tag's definition, here or on
`Settings > Tags`:

1. Select `Edit definition` on the tag's row.
2. Type the `Definition`, up to 500 characters. Leave it blank to clear it.
3. Select `Save definition`.

The definition shows in the dictionary, and as the help on that tag's column in the report column
picker. If someone else changed the tag since you opened the list, you're asked to select `Reload`
and try again.

## Export the list

On the `Fields` tab, select `Export CSV`. The file holds every field your search and filters
keep, not just the page you can see, with column headings in your organisation's terms. Each
export is recorded in the audit log with the filters you used and the number of rows.

## See also

- [Build a data table](building-a-data-table.md)
- [Data reports](data-reports.md)